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Sole Practitioners – Fee earning or Administration?

To most Sole Practitioners (SPs) the answer to this question is obvious. However during my 14 years of experience dealing with SPs, it is clear to me that fee earning time is being eroded by administration.

Why?

Three letters…. D.I.Y.

The mentality of doing everything yourself among SPs is rife at the moment, particularly as we are in the midst of a recession. The view that “doing it yourself cuts your costs” actually has an adverse effect on your company’s profitability.

Take the accounts for example. The average SP’s hourly rate across the UK is between £180 & £200 per hour. If it takes an SP one working day to do the accounts per month, the outlay is already £1400.00 before taking into account all of the queries, reconciliations and reporting that is required.

What would happen if you combined that with all of the other areas that require attention; compliance (COLP/COFA), policies to satisfy the SRA & the Outcome Focused Regulations, completing PII applications or practicing certificate applications, typing up letters or attendance notes, dealing with suppliers etc? No fee-earning work would get done! Even the most organised of people would struggle to get enough fee earning done to cover the wasted time dealing with administrative tasks.

It makes eminent sense for SPs to outsource where possible and pay a fraction of the cost for a specialist to take care of certain areas of the business for you. They’ll get the job done quicker, more accurately and cheaper. This will free up the SPs’ time to simply fee earn and fill those seven chargeable hours per day!